Polycarbonates are a class of known thermoplastics that, due to their many advantageous properties, are utilized in many commercial and industrial applications, particularly as engineering thermoplastics. They are a member of the tough thermoplastic family and exhibit many excellent properties such as toughness, flexibility, impact resistance, and high heat distortion temperatures. The polycarbonates are generally prepared by reacting a dihydric phenol with a carbonate precursor such as phosgene. However, while the polycarbonates enjoy many excellent properties they have certain drawbacks in that they are somewhat susceptible to attack by certain chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride, gasoline, phosphate esters, and the like.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide carbonate polymers which exhibit improved resistance to certain chemicals while simultaneously retaining substantially all of the other advantageous properties possessed by polycarbonates derived from dihydric phenols such as high heat distortion temperatures, toughness, flexibility, impact resistance, and the like.